Chapter Twenty

"I was wondering how long it would be before Hyperion activated my little recorder. Still, the fact he has now means he'll be coming for you, if he cares about you," Clyde said. Menelaus didn't speak at first, perhaps out of stubborn resistance to Clyde's interrogation which had consisted of Clyde asking him why the hell he was so important to Hyperion. Then he'd recognized a tattoo on Menelaus' shoulder, one the boy himself hadn't seen before and that Menelaus doubted Hyperion would know of even if he knew his boy had a mark.

"That's the brand of the Zabrak Sith lord, Darth Verrin, you carry on you. Did Hyperion get sent by him to collect you or something? Is that why you're going to Dathomir?" Clyde snapped.

"I don't know of any Darth Verrin! Until today, I didn't even know I had this mark!" Menelaus exclaimed. Which was the truth because Hyperion hadn't recognized the mark either and hadn't mentioned as much for all Menelaus' life.

"This mark belongs to any member of Darth Verrin's family, be it a concubine or one of his kids! Are you one of his kids that was taken from him, was your mom his favorite concubine or something like that?" Clyde demanded.

"I don't know what you're talking about! The only father I've ever had was the one you took me from, dickhead!" Menelaus bravely spat. Clyde was impressed that the boy had such emotional fortitude as to speak to him like that, perhaps making it somewhat truthful that Menelaus didn't know much of anything. So he snapped his fingers and had the boy brought to the window to watch his prized possessions do their work on another Wookiee.

"I want to show you just a little taste of who I am. Switch on the lights, I want him to see every moment of my babies at work. Just remember Menelaus, I bioengineered and created these things myself," Clyde replied. Below were several worm looking creatures, each of them as long as Menelaus at smallest and others longer still at maximum. The longer and bulkier ones looked well fed though on what the young Zabrak didn't yet know.

A couple meters above, a plank slid out and a door opened with the cries of a Wookiee confirming what was about to happen. Clyde was already as giddy as he could be without betraying the stoicism that he had greeted Menelaus with. Meanwhile, the hulking nine foot Trandoshan known as Drak watched with an empty expression that didn't even seem to register what was going on. The Wookiee struggled as best it could, roaring and crying out every step of the way and when Menelaus tried to turn away, Clyde wrapped a hand around the back of his neck and forced him to keep watching. After a minute or two of tussling around, the Wookiee finally fell into the pit where some of the smaller worms were already waiting.

The behemoth fell onto his back in landing and it didn't take more than half a standard minute for one worm to find him and enter through his mouth. As the big beast gurgled and choked, the worm made its way down his esophagus while three others waited their turn to make the same descent. When all three of the others had worked their way in, Menelaus watched as the worms sucked the life out of him, eating his liver and kidneys from the inside out. After eating to their satisfaction, they protruded sharp spikes which borrowed into the Wookiee's skin and appeared on the outer side, cutting his flesh until they had skinned him alive. The Wookiee was dead before the skinning was even completed but Menelaus knew the point of Clyde showing him this long before the kill was completed.

"If you don't tell me what I want to know, you'll be one of the next meals I give my babies down there. Capeesh?" Clyde asked.

"What do you want me to tell you? I've only known the snow of Ando Prime all my life and the survival code of the people who call it home. My Mom died when I was a baby and real dad never came for me," Menelaus told him. Clyde knew that whenever a kid was this insistent on a story, it usually meant that they were telling what they knew to be the truth. But he couldn't believe that a potential son of the Sith Lord Darth Verrin would be so unknowing of his heritage or legacy.

How in the universe had he gone for so long without knowing who his father was or what kind of man he could one day become? "Drak, tell the nerds at tech that I need some information on any members of Darth Verrin's family that might have died in the last fifteen years. I need to know if there's even a remote chance that the kid's story would check out," Clyde told him. The Trandoshan nodded and marched off to go deliver Clyde's instructions to the technicians operating his information desk. But by this time, Menelaus was a gibbering wreck who didn't even register that Clyde had made the request.

"I think I've gone and broke him. Give him a sedative and let him rest before we resume this interrogation. Maybe by then, Drak will find something confirming the kid's story," Clyde told a nearby doctor. The droid sedated Menelaus and sent him off to a spare bed that was made available for the boy when he first came to Clyde's floating fortress. Clyde waited in silent contemplation, knowing the worms were fed now and that there was little more to do than wait for Hyperion's inevitable arrival.

An hour passed or so in silence until Drak returned with a data chip. "This is all the information that the nerds were able to find on the deaths in Verrin's family. I think you might find it interesting," Drak said. He didn't know how the Trandoshan could have known with his limited intellect, intellect that Clyde himself had limited, but he thanked his bodyguard. Looking over the data was interesting as there was only one incident of Verrin's family being murdered which was consistent with Menelaus' story of arriving on Ando Prime as an infant.

Apparently, Verrin had had a concubine he favored out of everyone, even the wife he'd taken. She was an Iridonian Zabrak, making her somewhat like him biologically except for the fact that he was a Dathomiri male of the Zabrak race. When her only son by Verrin was born, it was said that he had no connection to the Force so Verrin tried to have both of them executed. But an apprentice of Verrin's, more treacherous by nature than most others, fought off her Master long enough for the mother and her child to escape. A more loyal apprentice followed in a dreadnaught that chased her refugee ship across the stars until it arrived at Ando Prime.

There, it engaged a Republic battleship across the heavens but in the process, the refugee ship had been destroyed. Completing his mission or so he believed, the apprentice prepared to return home until the only Jedi Knight on the taskforce (Ashlynn Thorine) slew him in combat. So Menelaus was telling the truth about not knowing that his father was one of the most powerful Sith Lords still standing in the remnants of the Sith empire. He had no way to know because the boy that the concubine had fled with was little more than an infant when the attack commenced. It was thought that the baby had died along with its mother when the ship was destroyed by the Sith dreadnaught but it would seem that Clyde was looking at that infant.

Unfortunately, that meant that Clyde also knew the boy had no information to give and was therefore useless. Did he throw him to the pit anyway for being such a useless kid and risk the consequences of Verrin finding out? Or did he keep him alive just long enough for Hyperion to watch the kid die before his very own eyes? As if to try and answer the question, he saw the lights to his floating fortress flicker then dissipate altogether until he largely only had the emergency red ones. "Son of a kath hound..." Clyde began.

He realized that even if Hyperion had been attacked outside, he had decided to use the ship to take out his power generator before landing to begin the assault. "All personnel, to arms! Not a single prisoner leaves this place and Hyperion doesn't get in for anything or anyone!" Clyde shouted. He should've been paying more attention to his sensor array's registration of Hyperion's ship but enjoying the worms was such an easy thing to do that he lost himself to it all. In the excitement at seeing Menelaus' reaction to the workings of the worms, he had failed to notice the alarms to the sensors.

Hell, in all his enjoyment of their sadistic food collecting habits, he failed to realized he'd turned off his office's speakers! Now, he knew that only some quick thinking and good strategy on his part was going to save the damned day from being Hyperion's. But the fact the power grid was lost meant that even that might not be enough what with the fact he was going to have to bark orders through the emergency PA systems that had been installed. And if Hyperion had already knocked out the power generator, likely ramming his own ship when he knew he couldn't salvage it, it was a good bet that he'd be reaching the sensor array so that other threats would not readily be detected.

The Sith Lord in Hyperion is back with a vengeance Clyde thought in a way that made a small part of him begin to wonder. Did he really want revenge or did he still want to tie loose ends as a professional? If he wanted revenge, was he going about it the right way or was there a good reason that Hyperion had given up his own quest for vengeance against Dantius? Was he ready to tackle a Sith that had already beaten him once, even with anesthetic gases to dull his senses, eleven years ago?

"Drak, stay here with me. If Hyperion gets past all my security, he'd better have a damned good reason for not being too weak to stop you. Either way, you'll be my only true defense if he somehow emerges victorious, the elite guard will be waiting at the final hallway before this chamber," Clyde said, readying a slugthrower of his own for one last great battle.

Chapter Twenty-One

As Clyde Rev had guessed, Hyperion had been forced to sacrifice his ship to destroy the power generator. But the timing of his departure into the escape pod, in combination to his methodical clearing of the missiles, allowed him to shoot toward the sensor array. He'd had the primary engines damaged during a volley of laser fire and decided to let the ship last only long enough to make a trajectory course for the generator. When he knew the escape pod would satisfy the trajectory he planned for it, he finished donning the suit that would allow him to brave the void of space.

He watched, after stepping out and finding an opening he could enter, he watched as the pod successfully landed in the sensor array. Knowing that no one would see him unless he they were in space with him, from the angle of his approach, he sent a flare that he knew Inoy would recognize for entering the space he needed to reach for the information Hyperion was to attain. Spirit, do you have a talent that's useful or was invisibility your best trick? Hyperion asked.

Get me near a battalion of soldiers and I can take possession of their minds if you but command it. I can then take possession of those who know how to reach the information center, help us reach it, and prevent Clyde from stopping our transmission. Those I possess can also be used as blaster fodder, the prisoners you released notwithstanding the specter said, ignoring the insult.

Then start gathering the power you need to do so now. On my signal, your power will pour through my spear in an outward explosion that will allow you to take possession of everyone in the vicinity. Build up until even I have to begin controlling it or helping you do that until I give the word Hyperion said, recognizing the spell as a powerful one. The specter laughed at the idea and began doing just that, a whirlpool of energy that Hyperion knew would continue to build like an unchecked reactor until it could finally take no more buildup. In the meantime, however, he used his lightsaber to find a hallway he knew led to his son and had no guards when he used Force Sight to check the way beforehand.

Landing safely inside the ship, which then initiated contingencies to prevent the void of space from sucking everything out, he put his lightsaber away. He also unfolded his shield and produced his blaster pistol, having not even had to use his thermal detonators yet. Knowing what it was like to defy high-security fortifications such as this before, he kept on the move, never spending too much time in one place. Plus if he emerged out of this, he had all his funds transferred into a single credit chip that he could use anytime anywhere. He could buy supplies at a later time and make the return trip without worry or thought of transport.

Thus he continued, shooting at any guard who thought to try him until his blaster was out of shots. Casting that aside, he occasionally threw thermal detonators at doors that stood in his way in case he wanted to save on Force powers. Then he produced his spear and kept himself in the largely impenetrable phalanx formation or more precisely, a variant that could be used for one person. It was right then that the specter's power reached her pinnacle and it was only a matter of time before Hyperion had the right opportunity to strike with her. When the opportunity comes, surge through my spear and arm then release on the bottom part of my spear Hyperion said.

Surges of green electricity began to circulate toward his arm, his suspicion that the specter's magic was rooted in flesh and blood holders being correct. As far as he reckoned, he could perceive two thousand guards with the likelihood of three thousand more right behind them being high. So when their blaster fire started pommeling his second shield, he raised the spear so that he could slam the pommel blade then jabbed to the floor. He timed it so that the jab could be done in a pause where they reloaded, the green wave that exploded forth hitting them right before they could train their fire on him once more.

The silence that past was so deafening that Hyperion could hear his own heartbeat during it. But when it was done, the specter had a total of six thousand well-chosen guards under her influence as well as the knowledge Hyperion needed. So he told her to send them forth and kill everyone else that wasn't under her influence, including the prisoners. He wasn't about to leave witnesses and odds were that Clyde had chosen mostly the hardest of criminals for his experiments.

People who wouldn't be missed until their mangled corpses turned up in a court of law or something similarly confirming of their deaths. The kind of people that, like him, would better the galaxy more in their death than in their perpetuation. Where Menelaus, Hyperion's biological daughter, and other such innocents only added beauty and kindness to this galaxy, beings like Hyperion, Clyde, and the Sith only knew the macabre practice of butchery. In a way, Hyperion hoped this would be the fight that killed him as long as Menelaus got away. Apart from freeing Inoy of obligation to him, it would also mean never having to worry about his son seeing the beast that lurked inside him and revile it.

But even so, the thousands that the specter possessed cut a swath through prisoners and freed guards alike. They even struck down some of the larger creatures that Clyde was keeping around for experimentation or some other twisted purpose of that sort. Smaller and less poisonous creatures were allowed to roam free until they started fighting the specter's guards or eating the personnel that still remained under Clyde's thumb. By the time Hyperion arrived to the inner sanctum of Clyde's floating fortress, most of his personnel were dead and the information center was left vulnerable for the taking.

So he attached the comm Inoy had given him though not before making sure it was transmitting the information Inoy needed. He was pleased to find that the Jedi Knight's T7 astromech unit had picked up on the signal and was decrypting the information. Hyperion decided it best to simply instruct the monitor to download everything then let the astromech filter it out later or something similar. He stayed by it in case it needed defending until he was sure the transmission wouldn't be interfered with. When it was completed, he detached the comlink and destroy it so that Clyde couldn't use it to intercept Inoy's transmission if he somehow came out of this alive.

Then he continued on his way to his target and his son, both of whom were awaiting him on a throne room at the center of the labyrinth of halls and tunnels. Finally finding it, he noticed there was just one more obstacle standing in his way and not the kind he could readily overcome. The elite guard that Clyde had hired to watch over him were the kinds of mercenaries that had killed Jedi and Sith alike before. They all had slugthrowers, the kinds of weapons that Hyperion couldn't deflect with his lightsaber and could barely deflect with his shield. So he knew that the first order of business was to use the last of his thermal detonators to divide their ranks.

Once he had done this, he would move in for the kill with his shurikens, his hope being to reserve his ax, whip, and spear for use against any combatants inside Clyde's room. The shurikens did their job and killed enough people to where Hyperion knew he could use his ax on the remaining individuals. Aside from the fact they were armed only with vibroblades of varying sorts, he had also covered the distance between them and himself too quickly for them to reach the pistols of their fallen comrades. He finished his assault by plunging his ax into the control panel for the door that lied beyond, still holding the wrist blade that he could shoot or duel with in reservation. The spear and whip he favored were also by his side as was a net he could shoot out that would get tighter with struggle until it sliced its victim to pieces.

Of course, he ended up having his lightsaber on reserve in case there were any enemies past that. Unfortunately, he did see two faces he had hoped he would never have to face before this expedition. Clyde was waiting for him with a blaster as was the Trandoshan hulk, Drak. "Drak? I thought you swore vengeance against Clyde, the hell are you doing working for him?" Hyperion inquired.

"A special little trade secret of mine. One of my earliest successes ate the part of his brain that controls free will and all memory except his training as Sith. So Drak, do us a favor and kill this guy, would you?" Clyde asked. Hyperion responded by throwing his spear with a bit of Force-imbued speed, quicker than Drak could unsheathe his vibroblade and get to work. The result was a severed aorta artery, dead center of the point where the neck met the chest and shoulders.

He was dead before Clyde even had time to do anything other than snap his fingers for the remaining assassin to come to his aid. But Hyperion dispatched this one with the wrist blade before they had even half a thought to see what he was doing. Had that one survived, he would've offered some ability to wield a battle ax but not enough to save him. Hyperion produced the whip in ending the same motion that had allowed him to shoot out the wrist blade and whirled it so that the hooking tip landed on the top of Clyde Rev's spine.

It took out the top part of his spine, keeping him alive but paralyzed from the shoulders down. From there, the only resistance was a nexuu that tried to ambush Hyperion from within the shadows but he was ready for it with the net that he could shoot from his left hand. As it tried to get out of the trap that Hyperion had placed it under, he could hear its cries of outrage and agony. Meanwhile, he cauterized Clyde's wounds with his lightsaber so that he could ask him some questions, specifically about what he wanted that made him place his filthy hands on Menelaus.